The Internet has achieved widespread acceptance with the consuming public. Today people routinely communicate via the Internet using email and instant messaging. Email is considered an asynchronous method of communication because the parties involved in the communication do not necessarily need to be engaged in the communication at the same time. In contrast, in a synchronous method of communication, both parties involved in the communication need to be engaged at the same time (e.g., telephone conversation or a face-to-face conversation). Instant messaging provides another method of communication that is semi-synchronous. Instant messaging is a semi-synchronous method of communication because both parties may be aware of the other party, but do not need to be fully engaged in the conversation. For example, one party may be aware that the other party is engaging in the conversation by observing the status of the other party (e.g., typing text). However, the communication does not occur until the actual typed text is sent. In another example, each party is aware of the other parties that are available for communication based on the other parties' log-on status. While instant messaging is a semi-synchronous method of communication, it may also operate in an asynchronous communication manner. This occurs, for example, when one party sends an instant message to another party who is offline. The other party is unaware of the message until logging on at a later time.
Therefore, one can see that instant messaging provides a communication experience that is different than other communication mechanisms (e.g., email, telephone, etc). However, even with all the communication mechanisms available today, consumers still remain interested in new communication mechanisms that provide them with different communication experiences.